Unsurprisingly, David Beckham’s fitness regimen isn’t easy.
The legendary footballer has given us a glimpse of the intensity with which he trains by creating a cardio class with F45 (f45training.es), alongside F45 head of athletics Gunnar Peterson. With explosive soccer-inspired moves and negligible rest periods, it will leave you drenched in sweat.
The partnership makes sense: Beckham, 47, has been invested in F45 since 2020 and has been a partner in the opening of the new (and extremely stylish) studio on London’s High Street Kensington, where the former footballer works out.
We went to the new studio to see what it’s really like to train like a footballer…
What does the class entail?
The class is 45 minutes of pure cardio, and Peterson said Beckham wanted the exercises “reminiscent of his soccer practice.”
There are 11 stations, and it’s set up like a classic HIIT (high-intensity interval training) class: You do two rounds at each station before moving on to the next, going through it twice, before ending in a brutal three-and-a-finisher. of half a minute of bodyweight exercises (appropriately called ‘overtime’).
“Power-focused explosive movements, as well as multi-directional agility drills, are types of training you would need to be able to play football at a high level,” explains Peterson, and they play an important role in training.
While each class will vary slightly, the session I did hit almost every part of the body, using a combination of bodyweight and weight exercises. This ranged from quick feet to burpees and push-ups combined with side-to-side jumps, to high pulls with a barbell and lunges with diagonal bicep curls.
There are many small tributes to Beckham and his career woven into training: the sets are 32 or 23 seconds of work, paying homage to the numbers on his jersey (he wore 23 at Real Madrid and LA Galaxy, and 32 at Paris Saint-Germain). and AC Milan (sadly, his number for Manchester United and England, seven, did not make it to training), that would have made things too easy).
What are the benefits?
“You’re going to have an elevated heart rate the entire time, from the warm-up to the finish,” Peterson explains. His cardiovascular fitness will be tested as he goes through intense periods of exercise and short breaks. “You’re going to have ups and downs, and if you think about how that challenges your heart, it’s like starting your car, turning it off, starting your car, turning it off. It is a lot of demand for the engine”.
While Peterson says other HIIT classes have their merits, what sets this soccer-inspired workout apart is how it challenges your movement. He says, “You’re moving in different directions, different planes of motion, you’re changing direction midway, you’re going from upper body to lower body.”
One of the exercises involved jumping up and down a step, then running backwards to start again, a good example of the use of explosive and quick movements, as well as traveling in different planes. Peterson suggests that these types of movements are “great for joints and joint stability. If you think about everything you do in real life, from reaching and grabbing your seatbelt, to reaching to the side when your kid goes to the pool, or whatever… Then if you train like this, you’ll be better at the real life”.
What is our verdict?
Don’t expect to go to this class and be able to slide, it’s incredibly sweaty and hard, right off the bat.
My training regimen tends to be strength and weight based, so the number of jumps and changes of direction was a bit of a shock to the system. It was challenging, but I definitely felt stronger afterwards, something you don’t always feel after a cardio class.
Like most F45 classes and HIIT in general, the session is extremely fast. On the one hand, this is a good thing – you don’t want to have too much time to think about your next set of brutal burpees, it’s much better to keep going – but on the other hand, it gets incredibly difficult towards the end. end, when your legs start to feel like lead. This is when you wish you had a few more seconds to catch your breath and move on to the next station, to make sure you’re doing each exercise to the best of your ability.
The exercises range from the extremely simple to the more complex, so it can be a bit daunting for novices or anyone just starting out on their fitness journey, and the sheer number of jumping jacks can be difficult for anyone with iffy knees. Talk to your GP or a trainer if you have any questions, and Peterson’s advice is simple: “Pace yourself. The working ratios are 32 seconds and 23 seconds, based on your jersey numbers, but if you need to cut it down a bit, cut it back. If you need to drop the resistor, drop the resistor. You don’t have to start with the biggest dumbbell or the biggest kettlebell, pull it back and work your way up.”
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